The Electron Microscopy Shared Facility in the University of New Mexico School of Medicine was established in 1966 and has been continuously upgraded by equipment, construction and renovations funds from the School of Medicine, the State of New Mexico and NIH/NCRR. A SIG award in 2001 provided critically needed funds to purchase a new Hitachi 7500 transmission electron microscope equipped with a 1 megapixel digital camera. We seek funds to substantially upgrade the digital imaging system through the purchase of a 6.8 megapixel ATM XR-60C camera, for high resolution, high contrast imaging on the Hitachi 7500. The eight major and four minor users described here come from five different academic departments and participate in three different SOM research programs, Signal Transduction, Adhesion and Trafficking, Molecular Genetics, and Neurosciences. Seven of the major investigators direct NIH-funded laboratories. Funding for this application will permit acquisition of high quality digital images required for publication and will specifically support needs for automated imaging processing for quantitation and statistical analysis of electron microscopy data. The new camera will ensure the continued productivity of NIH-funded electron microscopy-based research programs in cellular and molecular biology and neurosciences at the University of New Mexico. [unreadable] [unreadable]